Joseph Estabrook School
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Joseph Estabrook School is an elementary school in Lexington, Massachusetts. It has grades kindergarten through 5th grade. The name comes from Joseph Estabrook (1669 – 1733), the first schoolteacher in Lexington.
[edit] David Parker controversy
In April of 2005 a controversy over a book at Estabrook Elementary School erupted. A 'diversity bookbag' was made available to kindergarten students to take home as part of normal school activities. The bookbag contained a book that told about different kinds of families and had activities for the child to complete with his/her parents/guardians. The book showed families that were divorced, single parents, a family with two fathers, and many other types of families. The bookbag program is optional[1], and the bookbags were allegedly on display at the school during a parents' event at the beginning of the year.
One local parent, David Parker, objected to the idea of the school sending home a book that portrayed a homosexual family, and asked the principal of the school that his child not be involved in this program, and that no mention of homosexual families be made in his son's presence. He refused to leave the school until he received a guarantee to this effect, because he claimed the principal was denying his parental rights. Because the principal and the police felt he was trespassing without a good reason to be there, Parker was arrested.
Parker argued that the school should have informed parents ahead of time that the book may teach children about homosexuality, because Massachusetts state law requires that parents are to be informed before schools teach about sexuality. Lexington Public Schools stated that the book did not teach about sexuality - it simply talked about how some families have two fathers or two mothers. They argued that portraying families does not teach about sexuality, and since there are a number of children of same-gender parents in attendance at Estabrook, it is relevant to the students in the school.
The story was picked up by many news sources nationally. Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, an opponent of same-sex marriage, said: "Schools under our parental-notification law are required to inform parents ... of matters relating to human sexuality that may be taught in the classroom and to allow that child to be out of the classroom for that period of the education." Incoming governor Deval Patrick has not commented on the case.
The story also came to the attention of Fred Phelps. Phelps' organization, The Westboro Baptist Church, a strongly anti-homosexual organization which uses the slogan "God hates fags"[2], came to Estabrook to protest. He also protested the 2005 Lexington High School Graduation. His group was met with extreme opposition from community counter-protesters. Most others chose to ignore the group.
In April 2006, David Parker, his wife, and another couple sued Lexington Public School officials over the book. He is supported strongly by the Mass Resistance anti-gay-marriage activism group. He has received otherwise very little support from other Lexington and Massachusetts residents.
[edit] References
- ^ http://estabrook.ci.lexington.ma.us/Diversity/diversitybookbags.html
- ^ http://www.godhatesfags.com
